One of the problems about deciding where to travel is forming an accurate view of the safety of a city, country, or region.
News, anecdotes and travel warnings induce anxiety, but how do you know if somewhere is truly safe?
The only news that receives coverage is of disasters or extreme events. You don’t hear about all the Canadians having pleasant vacations to the Philipines, but you will repeatedly hear about the two who were kidnapped and beheaded. The associations that you have formed with a place will probably be negative from the news you’ve heard about it.
The same issue applies to anecdotes. You won’t hear about your the friend of the brother of your sister’s boyfriend’s trip to Colombia if it went well. But there is a better chance you will hear about if they got robbed. This plays into the same problem as issue number one. You are more likely to have built negative associations about places.
Most of your associations about places are detached from reality.
To deal with this, you have to remember not to take your current associations seriously.
Understand and accept that most of what you know about a place unless you have first-hand accounts from friends, is biased in a negative direction.
Then also understand that the first-hand accounts you get from friends are likely biased in the opposite positive direction.
Humans are prone to generalization. Just because your friend visited two cities does not mean a country is safe. Anyone who has decided to visit a country has an incentive to see their experience with rose colored glasses. They are much more likely to share the positives than the negatives.
So the balancing act is this. Seeking out as many first-hand accounts as you can get. Adjusting for the likely positive bias. Accepting that your previous associations are likely deeply flawed, and government reports are only useful for identifying regions to be more skeptical about.
Staying safe
The better question when you are thinking about traveling somewhere with a bad reputation is not “is it safe?” but “how do I stay safe?”
It is possible to visit any country in the world safely. Diplomats safely can visit war zones. The only question is the amount of resources required to stay safe and the diminished enjoyment from the safety adjustments you need to make.
Where you will feel most, comfortable traveling will depend on what your budget is, what you are traveling with, and who you are traveling with.
As a solo female traveler, there are probably more places where you need to worry about your safety.
It is smart to pay attention to safety concerns while you plan a trip, but one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned traveling and talking to hundreds of travelers is that pre-trip safety anxiety is normal, but almost always unfounded.
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